As Captain of a Sunderland aircraft this officer completed a determined attack against a U-boat on 16th May, 1944*. Despite intense and accurate anti-aircraft fire which severely damaged his aircraft Lieutenant Johnsen brought his aircraft back to this country.

CUMMING, William Neville, F/L - Distinguished Flying Cross - awarded as per London Gazette dated 20 November 1925 "in recognition of gallant and distinguished service carried out by the Royal Air Force in Waziristan, March 9, 1925 to May 1, 1925". To No.27 Squadron, India, 4 February 1925. To RAF Depot, Uxbridge, on transfer to Home Establishment, 20 August 1925. Award reported in Aeroplane of 25 November 1925. For a description of these operations see Dispatch printed in London Gazette of 17 November 1925, reprinted in Aeroplane of 25 November and 2 December 1925. The force employed had a Headquarters at Tank plus the following squadrons: No.5 (Army Cooperation) based on Tank, ten Bristol Fighters, 14 officers, 69 airmen; No.27 (Bomber) based on M’ramshaw, eight DH.9A aircraft, 15 officers, 58 airmen; No.60 (Bomber) based on M’ramshaw, eight DH.9A aircraft, 15 officers, 67 airmen. Invested with award, 4 February 1926. Public Record Office Air 30/62/1-9 has the following submission:

For gallantry whilst flying during the operations. This officer set a splendid example to his squadron, and performed 72 hours war flying, including 41 bomb raids.

With regret we announce the death, following an illness, of G/C William Neville Cumming. O.B.E., D.F.C., A.F.R.Ae.S., F.R.Met.S. He was 55 years of age. Known to his friends as "Bill", though sometimes as "Neville", G/C Cumming had devoted most of his working life to aviation, in which his career was both active and distinguished. Between 1917 and 1926 he served first in the R.N.A.S. and then in the R.A.F., in France and India. He next went to Canada for four years, where he did much to pioneer civil flying*. In 1931 he joined Imperial Airways, with whom he remained until 1938. During this period he was concerned with the introduction of flying-boat services, carrying out the first tests of the Short Caledonia from Southampton to Alexandria on March 4th, 1937. He also inaugurated the New York to Bermuda service on June 12th, 1937. It was in 1936 that he obtained his first-class navigator's ticket. Between 1939 and 1945 he again served in the R.A.F., first in Coastal Command and later as Staff Officer in charge of anti-U-boat defences in the Indian Ocean. Since the war he had been associated with several air transport companies and had been a director of TSlorth-West Airline (I.O.M.) [sic]**, G/C Cumming, Ltd., and Southern Engineering Co., Ltd. In 1949, G/C Cumming served for a year as Master of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators of the British Empire. This was the year in which the Queen, as Princess Elizabeth, was installed as Grand Master of the Guild. She in turn installed the Master. G/C Cumming was also a past chairman of the British Air Charter Association, a past-president of F.I.T.A.P., a member of the Council of the Air League of the British Empire and a member of the Helicopter Association of Great Britain. Sympathy is extended to his widow, son and daughter.

A maritime reconnaissance Shackleton of R.A.F. Coastal Command's 120 Squadron, stationed at Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, yesterday consigned to the Atlantic the ashes of the late Group Captain W. N. Cumming, who died on June 29, aged 56, after a long association with the maritime side of the R.A.F.